Nokia Lumia 930 vs Lumia 830: What's the difference?

Microsoft announced a new flagship today at IFA 2014 in Berlin, the Nokia Lumia 830.

But wait - isn't the Lumia 930 the flagship handset? These two phones look almost the same! What's going on here?

We hear you, and to cut through the flagship conundrum, we've pulled these two Lumia together to give you the lowdown and determine whether the Lumia 830 is just the poor man's 930.

Read on to find out what the difference is.

Spitting image

The design of the two handsets is close, very close. Both opt for polycarbonate backs in bright colours with an aluminium frame holding front and back together.

There's a difference in the detailing on the back, however, with the 830 sporting a different arrangement around the camera. The black detailing looks like it could be a homage to the 1020, but at first glance, it's the best way to tell the 930 and 830 apart.

Both have the same button layout down the side, both with a dedicated camera button.

Display differentiates

When you arrive at the display, however, there's a fairly big difference. Not in size, because both have a 5-inch screen, but in resolution.

Where the Lumia 930 has a lovely, sharp 1920 x 1080 resolution, the Lumia 830 slips back to 1280 x 720. On a device this size that make quite a difference, and the Lumia 930 is going to be more adept visually as a result.

The Lumia 930 is also an OLED display, where the 830 is reguar IPS LCD. That means the 930 is likely to offer better colours, but both offer Gorilla Glass 3, glove support and so on.

Incomparable internals

The story of different hardware continues within the Lumia 830 and 930 too. The 930 proudly offers a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset, clocked at 2.2GHz with 2GB of RAM.

The Lumia 830 is a good step down with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset, clocked at 1.2GHz, with 1GB of RAM. It's still quad-core, but likely to be slower in almost all areas.

The 930 comes with 32GB of storage, while the 830 halves this to 16GB. However the 830 offers expansion via microSD, which could be a popular feature.

Battery bruising

The Lumia 830 has a slightly lower capacity battery than the 930 - 2220mAh compared to 2420mAh - but it may well perform better. The cited life according to Microsoft's figures see the 830 last longer. That's probably down to lower power demands from the processor and the display.

Not only that, but the 830 has a removable battery, so you can also carry a spare - something the 930 doesn't offer you.

Both devices, however, offer Qi wireless charging.

Camera showdown

Both of these devices carry PureView cameras on the rear, but the 930 hogs the spotlight with a 20-megapixel sensor, compared to 10-megapixels on the 830. Both have Zeiss glass and offer optical image stabilisation.

Given Nokia's performance in the past, we'd expect great things from both and we like the results we've got from the 930. How that differs on the 830 we're yet to see, but the step down to 10MP probably doesn't lessen the quality of your daily shots, just your ability to zoom in after the fact.

There will be one difference though. When the Lumia 930 is updated to Lumia Denim - the latest software version - it's going to bring 4K video capture with it. That's not coming to the 830.

Aside from the 4K, both will have the same camera features, however, once the 930 has a software update to Lumia Denim, which the 830 launches with.

As for the front cameras, the 930 has a 1.2MP sensor, the 830 a 0.9MP sensor.

Similar software

We say similar software, because Microsoft has confirmed that the 930 is first in line to get the Lumia Denim update.

The Lumia 830 will pip it to the post - offering the latest from Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 with Lumia tweaks - as it launches with Denim.

Summing up

So despite the similar size and looks, there's a number of significantly different aspects to these devices. While the Lumia 930 is the flagship, the Lumia 830 is being pitched as the affordable flagship.

The launch price for Lumia 830 is €330. That's pretty cheap, around £260, although we're not sure what the UK price will be once you add taxes and the obligatory British price bump. The Lumia 930 on the other hand currently costs £449 on the Microsoft Store.

You get a much more power in the 930 and a better display, but if you're struggling for cash, then the 830 might be the answer.